For a few days this month, students don’t have to travel far to get a taste of what’s happening in the world.

Syracuse University’s Human Rights Film Festival runs from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26. The festival was created in 2003 by SU professors Tula Goenka and Roger Hallas. Since its inception 13 years ago, it has featured critically-acclaimed documentaries from festivals worldwide, from Sundance to Berlin.

SUHRFF is completely curated: Six diverse, hand-picked films — four American and two foreign — will be showcased this year.

“We really try to show films that are not in wide distribution, that would be more difficult for people in Syracuse to watch,” said Goenka, an associate television, radio and film professor. “They’re more independent films that are very current.”

The festival is a part of Syracuse Symposium, an exploration of public humanities at the university over the course of the fall semester. This year, the Symposium’s theme is networks, said Hallas, an associate professor of English.

The idea of networks is incorporated into a few of the festival’s films, such as “(T)error,” which documents FBI counterterrorist sting operations, and “Stories of Our Lives,” a collection of stories from Kenya’s LGBT community.

SUHRFF also goes beyond Syracuse Symposium to touch on issues prevalent around the globe.

“There are certain subject areas that we usually include,” Goenka said. “One is LGBT issues because that’s Professor Hallas’ area of study and expertise to a large extent, and there’s usually a film from South Asia.”

The films are selected not only because they are relevant and relatable, but also due to their caliber — all have been recognized at several film festivals across the U.S. and worldwide.

Goenka and Hallas try to vary the documentaries according to different regions of the world, but at least one American film is shown in order to expose audiences to human rights violations closer to home.

The exhibited documentaries are often linked to trending social issues, such as this year’s “Overburden,” which will touch on climate change just in time for the Nov. 2015 Paris Climate Change Summit. Another film, “Margarita, With a Straw,” documents cerebral palsy, linking it to the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Several films also feature discussions with their creators.
“It’s very important for students and faculty, and the general public, to interact with the filmmaker and find out the process and their thinking,” Goenka said. “It really makes that experience much more vibrant.”

The discussions have been so successful through the years that many of the filmmakers are so drawn to the “energy of SU” that they often ask if they can return to the festival, Goenka said.

Hallas strongly encourages students to attend the festival, emphasizing that the foreign films can broaden audiences’ perspectives.

“To have a college education means to be globally aware,” he said. “Exploring a world [through film] gives a depth and a richness to understanding issues in a deeper way than just watching them on the news or keeping up with them on social media.”

And although it may be easier to watch a film alone, seeing them in a theater encourages discussion and introspection, Goenka said.

“Watching it on a big screen with [other] people and then having a discussion afterwards really takes it to the next level,” she said. “That’s why we really encourage students to come.”

 

Published on September 23, 2015 at 9:22 pm

Contact Lucy: lmnaland@syr.edu